An earthquake struck Mount Tai, causing a landslide.
One of the massive rocks smashed into the cable car ticket hall, flattening a cable car that was about to descend.
Fortunately, the cableway itself wasn't affected, or else all the tourists on it would have been in danger.
What was even more surprising was that the seven people killed in the cable car were drug dealers—both the suppliers and the buyers were inside.
Moreover, these seven were the masterminds behind two drug trafficking organizations, with many lives on their hands.
Many people said it was the mountain god of Mount Tai manifesting its power.
Others linked this sudden event to the mirage of the fengshan ceremony on Mount Tai.
…
The above was something Chen Huaian learned later.
The first thing he did after descending the mountain wasn't calling an ambulance but finding a small supermarket to borrow a power bank. He charged his phone, opened the "Electronic Girlfriend" game, and sat on a chair as if nothing had happened. Beside him, Zhang Rui was nervously calling 120.
Zhang Rui felt half responsible for Chen Huaian's fracture today.
If he hadn't said such harsh things, maybe Chen Huaian wouldn't have insisted on climbing Mount Tai?
"Let me see what my electronic girlfriend is up to."
As soon as the game screen opened,
Chen Huaian was bombarded with notifications.
[Your remaining lifespan: 130 days.]
[Your electronic girlfriend 'Li Qingran' has been attacked by a small beast tide!]
[Your electronic girlfriend 'Li Qingran' is fighting fiercely…]
[Your electronic girlfriend 'Li Qingran' has been injured.]
[Your electronic girlfriend 'Li Qingran' is critically injured!]
What the heck?!
Chen Huaian's heart tightened. How did she get injured in just the time it took him to climb the mountain?
Why would there be a beast tide attack during the early morning?
Even if it fits the nocturnal habits of demonic beasts, this is a game! Don't players need to sleep?
He quickly closed all the notification windows and then saw a heart-wrenching scene.
The house was almost destroyed by the demonic beasts' assault. Li Qingran was surrounded by a group of beasts, with the corpses of beasts scattered around her.
She knelt in a pool of blood, her head lowered, her hair covering her face. She was holding onto a broken sword, still wearing the new outfit from the 30-yuan recharge. But now, the outfit was riddled with claw marks, and behind the torn fabric was not a tantalizing sight but bloody wounds.
[Your electronic girlfriend 'Li Qingran' is on the brink of death!]
"What a pity… I still couldn't meet Senior…"
Li Qingran felt like she was about to die.
She barely lifted her head, looking at the hole in the ceiling, her pale cheeks devoid of color.
Her hollow eyes stared at the morning sky, growing dimmer as everything in her vision gradually turned gray.
Nineteen years of life, looking back, it was all filled with sorrow.
Her father died on the battlefield, and her mother was poisoned by assassins from an enemy country.
She thought joining the Qingyun Sect would allow her to avenge her parents, but instead, she fell from one quagmire into another.
The rules of the cultivation world were strict—cultivators were forbidden from interfering in mortal affairs.
But these rules were just shackles used to bind ordinary cultivators.
So she worked hard to improve her cultivation, diligently dreaming of one day rising above the rules to comfort the souls of her parents in heaven…
Now, she had been expelled from the sect, left with a shattered dantian and spiritual roots.
A sparrow flew past the hole in the roof.
A glimmer of light appeared in Li Qingran's eyes.
In just two days, every moment of her acquaintance with Senior flashed through her mind.
Even though Senior had never appeared, he had given her care and warmth without asking for anything in return.
"In this life… Qingran is powerless to repay Senior's kindness… cough cough."
She hunched over, blood and tears mixing as they dripped from the corner of her mouth.
"If there's a next life…"
A demonic beast, seeing Li Qingran swaying and no longer a threat, immediately charged forward to tear her body apart.
At that moment.
Dozens, even hundreds of lightning bolts descended from the sky.
Boom boom boom—!
The majestic and violent lightning struck down, illuminating the small house and its surroundings in a blinding white light.
Song Jiaojiao, who had been hiding in her concealment array, watched this scene in stunned silence.
What had she just seen?
A handful of thunderfire talismans had fallen from the sky, shooting toward the demonic beasts!
Whose thunderfire talismans were these?
Li Qingran's?
But even the cheapest thunderfire talisman cost 500 low-grade spirit stones. This one attack had used at least tens of thousands of low-grade spirit stones. Li Qingran couldn't possibly be that rich. So there was only one possibility—someone behind Li Qingran had intervened.
Who was this person?
Song Jiaojiao looked at the sky filled with thunder, her face pale.
The lightning continued.
The thunderfire talismans were being thrown down like they were free.
At least two hundred were thrown, annihilating all the demonic beasts inside and outside the house, reducing even their bones to ashes before finally stopping.
The lightning gradually faded, and the small house remained intact.
But the area around the house was now covered in densely packed craters from the thunder.
Inside the house, Li Qingran lay unconscious in a pool of blood, surrounded by burning thunderfire, but a golden shield isolated her from the flames.
"Ugh—! This is not a place to stay."
Song Jiaojiao felt that something was about to go wrong, a sense of foreboding rising in her heart.
The next second, a thunderfire talisman suddenly appeared above her head.
The talisman emitted a golden light, and even the characters inscribed on it carried the majesty of thunder.
"This is… an immortal-grade talisman?!"
Song Jiaojiao's eyes widened.
An immortal-grade thunderfire talisman, aimed at her.
Aimed at a small, not-yet-Base-Building cultivator like her?
How the other party had discovered her was no longer a question.
To someone who could throw such talismans around like trash, her concealment array was just a toy in their eyes.
"Ha… haha…"
A bitter smile appeared on Song Jiaojiao's face.
The next second,
Boom—!
A golden lightning bolt as thick as a bucket descended from the sky.
The concealment array shattered instantly.
Along with it, Song Jiaojiao was reduced to ashes…
…
Seeing all the red dots on the map wiped out, Chen Huaian finally breathed a sigh of relief.
He hadn't been this nervous even when he fractured his leg or encountered falling rocks on Mount Tai.
"Damn it, can't this game set up an enemy alert? I leave for a moment, and monsters are already raiding my home?"
He had already pulled 500 times from the Luck Koi pool.
What he got were mostly spirit stones, thunderfire talismans, and communication talismans.
Well, getting low-grade spirit stones was definitely a loss, but both thunderfire and communication talismans were a win.
And not all the thunderfire talismans were ordinary—there were also over a dozen high-grade and top-grade ones.
Immortal-grade talismans were the hardest to get, and out of 500 pulls, he only got two.
He had just used one to obliterate the mini-boss hiding in the shadows.
However, he also got an极品法器·素弦剑 (Top-grade magic weapon: Su Xian Sword).
He didn't know how much a top-grade magic weapon was worth, but since it wasn't available in the Qi Refinement store, it must be a weapon commonly used by Base-Building cultivators.
He probably made a decent profit, right?
But now wasn't the time to think about that.
Chen Huaian's expression was grave as he tapped on Li Qingran's body.
[Status: Severe blood loss, on the brink of death.]
[Cultivation progress: 1456/4999 (Fifth Level).]
[Remaining lifespan: Moments.]
[Favorability: 35 (Respect).]
"Hmm… the game character is severely injured. The normal process would be to administer medicine first."
Chen Huaian opened Li Qingran's storage ring and dragged an immortal-grade Great Recovery Pill from the monthly card reward to her mouth.
But he received this prompt:
[Your electronic girlfriend 'Li Qingran' is critically injured and cannot swallow the Great Recovery Pill on her own. Administration failed!]
Very realistic logic and subjective initiative.
Chen Huaian thought,
"You made a game this hardcore—are you trying to pass the civil service exam?!"